Dewberry hosted its third annual survey merit badge day on May 6, 2017, in the firm’s Mount Laurel, New Jersey, office. This is the fourth time employees across the company have organized the required exercises for boy scouts to earn their survey merit badge.
Ten scouts participated in this session and earned their survey merit badges. The scouts discussed GPS, its importance and its effects on surveying, as well as other relevant topics such as the application of technology, different types of surveying, and career opportunities within the surveying profession.
The requirements for the badge include a knowledge of first aid for the types of injuries that can occur while surveying, and proper identification of poisonous plants and animals that inhabit the area. The scouts must also find and mark the corners of a five-sided lot, measure the angles and distance between each corner, and compute the error of closure. With their field notes gathered, scouts must draw a plat of the survey to scale and write a metes and bounds description. They use a corner marker as a benchmark with an assumed elevation of 100 feet and a level and rod to determine the elevation of the other four corners.
With more than 100 badges currently in existence, the surveying badge is one of the original badges that still remain available for scouts to obtain, dating back to 1911. It is historically one of the most difficult to receive as merit badge counselors who are also professional land surveyors are in short supply.
